So I'll start blogging again by talking about the UK death certificate I received in the mail this week. It's for my great great grandmother Sarah Ann PALMER (nee WENMAN).

When the UK 1911 census first became available in 2009 I searched for my PALMER ancestors. I could not find Sarah. I found her 4 daughters - 3 married , 1 single. I guessed Sarah had died between 1901 and 1911. So I looked for her death. From the 186 Sarah Palmer deaths 1901-1911 there were still 15 aged 60+- 5 years. Could I be sure the death would be registered as Sarah Ann? In 1901 she was living in St Pancras. None of the 'possibles' were registered in St Pancras. I decided to leave it to see if some other evidence came to light.

Fast forward to 2012 - I was tidying up some of the information about the Palmers on my ancestry tree. I came across a burial in St Pancras Parish Chapel for Finchley Cemetery for Sarah A Palmer in 1904, aged 60, residing 114 Camden St. I should immediately have known this was the right one as my great grandmother Agnes PALMER was residing at 114 Camden St at the time of her marriage in 1902. However, I'd forgotten that.

Instead I saw a P at the end of the entry in the death register & thought maybe that means pauper. Does it? Well it worked for me. I browsed the London Poor Law records for Saint Pancras Workhouse admission and Discharge register, 1902-1906.

I found the same Sarah Palmer ie age, address the same but with added occupation caretaker. As her 1901 census occupation was caretaker I was pretty sure I had my Sarah. She was admitted 15/12/1903 and discharged 18/12/03.

So to the death indexes. There was only 1 of right age in right quarter of 1904 but district Southwark?? I decided to order it.

Around 3 weeks later it arrived & I quickly opened it to confirm it was definitely the right one. Sarah Ann Palmer died in Guy's Hospital which explains why the registration was Southwark.

1 comment:

Congratulations on finding the correct certificate Alison. I have a few UK ancestors I need to seek out certificates for, but their name is Smith! So I am putting that research aside for a little while.